Union's plan is to expand down by the river

CHESTER -- Fans heading to PPL Park this weekend, or at any point in the next two seasons, better take a good look toward the Delaware River and the Commodore Barry Bridge.

Don't get too accustomed to those scenic sightlines, with barges and boats buzzing by. In a blink, they could be gone.

Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz and his business team have begun strategizing a 10-year plan that will increase PPL Park's available seating capacity from its current 18,500 to as many 30,000.

Part of that means, in part, doing away with the visibility of the stadium's scenic appeal.

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"You would lose some river views," Sakiewicz said Wednesday, "but that's the price of success."

In an effort to prevent Union fans from wearing hardhats to PPL Park, Sakiewicz stressed that the club does not intend to begin this expansion project until 2013.

"But it was always our plan from Day 1," Sakiewicz said. "We have a 10-year plan we embarked on last year and we knew somewhere along the line we would have a need to expand.

"We designed this stadium with intent to expand. Fortunately, we have a team that requires expansion sooner than later."

Some might ask, 'If the Union had plans to expand their stadium, why didn't they build it larger from the start?' As Sakiewicz points out, he and the club had no idea how well they'd be received upon joining Major League Soccer in 2010.

They couldn't have envisioned starting a season-ticket waiting list for the 2012 campaign only nine weeks into this one. They couldn't have dreamed of resting in the league's top five among average weekly attendance, selling out all but one 2011 home match to date. They couldn't have imagined pulling in impressive international friendly opponents like Manchester United, Celtic FC and Real Madrid, all of which raise the public awareness of a fledgling franchise.

The two-phase plan -- one upping available seating to 20,000 and the other to 30,000 -- is to add seating to four regions of the stadium. They are: the two North corners; the East Side, which could accommodate at least eight rows where sponsorship banners reside currently; and, umm, adding a deck in the River End.

That's right. The scenic aspects of the stadium would be compromised during this expansion project.

"We've taken the river and the bridge into consideration, but that also is the largest place for expandability," Sakiewicz said. "We would look to add an upper-deck there, above the Sons of Ben, and another club (level) that would have views of the river on one side and views of the field from the other."

The Sons of Ben, the Union's top support group, occupy the seats in the River End. Bryan James, the group's president, supports the decision.

"Our views won't change; everybody else's will," James said. "An overhang or another deck would be great because it would funnel all the noise we make.

"Other than that, I honestly can't tell you how our membership will take the news (of the expansion)."

That being said, Sakiewicz emphasized that the Union's place atop the Eastern Conference table had no impact on the rapidity of this expansion project. He said he didn't inform the technical staff or the players about it, either, because it has "more to do with the business side than the playing side."

"I mean, it's not like I called a team meeting," Sakiewicz said. "Their job is to win on Saturdays. We'll take care of the rest."

Union manager Peter Nowak talked exclusively to the Daily Times Wednesday as he exited PPL Park. He said the proposed plans to expand the stadium gives him, his coaches and his players a vote of confidence that they're doing their jobs.

"We will benefit from them expanding and they will benefit from us playing good," Nowak said. "It says we're doing something right, that we are winning games and winning fans."

Coming from a guy who has played matches in stadiums with capacities exceeding 100,000 -- "Tehran, Iran in 1990. It was massive," he said -- Nowak knows a thing or two about stadium size.

"It will be great to have even more fans supporting us," Nowak said, "but the one problem you don't want to have is the stadium will be big and half the stadium will be empty. We're in the moment right now where people see what we're doing and they like what we're doing."

There are a few things to consider here.

For one, the Union signed a sponsorship deal with Bimbo Bread that reportedly is worth $12 million over a four-year span. That, a television contract with Comcast and a few minor sponsorships have given the Union enough money coming in the door to consider greatly this sort of expansion project.

Secondly, PPL Park has established a great appeal to the public and to outsiders who wish to use it as a venue for their sporting events. The USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship wrapped up its tournament there last weekend and it went so well that the folks running it re-upped with PPL Park for the 2012 tourney. Additionally, Villanova football, with a pending jump to the Football Bowl Subdivision, has been rumored to be in negotiations with the Union to use PPL Park as its home venue.